You know the Winter Olympics is happening when "curling" is one of the most searched for sports in South Africa. Apart from the disappointing cricket yesterday, this week South Africans are trying to figure out what this sport involving a stone, an ice rink and a bunch of people with broom-like prods is all about. Thankfully, we've found a video that does just that. With 13 000 subscribers, Curling Canada is probably not a YouTube channel you'd subscribe to immediately, but it does a splendid job making the sport itself interesting. Who knew curling could be so fun to watch? And it's not...
News bloopers are ideal fodder for YouTube, aren't they? Between the famous grape stomping lady and Nhlanhla Nene's dodgy chair, there have been plenty of memorable bloopers over the years. So what stood out in 2017? News Be Funny has the answer in the form of a 15-minute compilation, covering all the major flubs of the year. Check it out below.
Uber's first advertisement highlighting the plight of commuters in southeast Asia may just trigger a nerve for those stuck in traffic in Cape Town and Johannesburg daily. Filmed in Bangkok with 200-odd extras, the company's ad trades automobiles for Flintstone-inspired box cars. But that doesn't mean there's any less chaos. From drivers stealing parking spots, to others cutting in ahead of lanes, to those select few who believe one-ways are in fact safe for bidirectional traffic: the video is practically what every road user experiences every day. Perhaps with less cardboard. While the ad is undoubtedly stupid, remarkably silly and deliberately extra,...
You must be so sick of hearing about Cape Town's water crisis right now. But it's a huge problem -- and a potential catastrophe -- that isn't about to go away at the snap of a finger. We've seen dam levels gradually rise since June, however five months later, some have yet to breach the 50% mark. The largest dam in the system -- the massive Theewaterskloof -- has yet to breach 30% of its total storage. Considering that plans to augment the surface storage with ground water extraction, desalination and water reuse are still plans, this summer is set to...
Thanks to the internet, human beings are forced to endure pain and suffering on a scale we were never built to comprehend. But out of this pain comes goodness -- and the internet is good for that too. Case in point: this viral video of a dog being reunited with her family after she went missing during the California wildfires that have so far taken the lives of 40 people. According to Beckyjean Widen, who posted the story to Facebook, her parents' dog Izzy ran away during the confusion of evacuation, and her mother was unable to chase after her without risking her...
American recording trio Major Lazer may have been slammed in the past for making coin from cultural appropriation, but its latest track brings out the best in South Africa's and Nigeria's music and cinematography scene. Co-produced by South Africa's DJ Maphorisa, and starring SA rapper Nasty C, and Nigerian artists Ice Prince, and Pantoranking, "Particula" is a reggae banger that this week received the music video treatment. Said video was also directed by Cape Town-based Adriaan Louw. "Particula" does not feature Table Mountain however, but rather the Hillbrow Tower. Major Lazer's 'Particula' is filmed in Johannesburg, but features both Nigerian and South...
The late winter months see thousands of tourists flock to the Western Cape coastal town of Hermanus to catch a glimpse of its returning celebrities: the southern right whales. The mammals head back to the town's Walker Bay to mate and calve, and put on a bit of a show for the locals. Sometimes, this show is captured by a drone whirling away overhead. And in this case, photographer Luke Maximo Bell was at the controls. "I used a drone to capture these majestic creatures as best as I possibly could! It was an incredible experience to see them play and...
The last week in trailers promoted A-list faces in highly-anticipated movies, so grab some popcorn because there's bound to be something in this list that gets you hype. The Shape of Water The red-band trailer for Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water has been released, and, no, there isn't any inter-species fish sex, I'm sorry to say. The "other-worldly fairy tale" is set in Cold War-era America, and tells of a lonely mute woman whose life changes when she discovers a top secret "asset" in the form of an alien fish-man. It stars Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Shannon, and hits South African...
There were plenty trailers released last week, so to make your weekly catch-up simpler I've split them up into very formal categories for you to peruse. Let's get to it. The mainstreams Fifty Shades Freed It feels like Fifty Shades Darker came out yesterday, but the films were shot back-to-back last year and I guess they're looking to cash in before everyone forgets who Mr Grey even is. This teaser doesn't do much more than let you know they're married and that Christian Grey thinks he respects Ana. It's a naivete that's neither cute nor deplorable. The trilogy ends Valentine's Day next year. The Current War With every invention that threatens to upend society...
A short film directed by South African director Michael Matthews has won the prestigious Short of the Week -- and it's got some tongues wagging. Based on Charlie Human's urban-fantasy novel Apocalypse Now Now, the short serves as proof-of-concept for an upcoming feature film written by District 9 writer Terri Tatchell. It tells of Capetonian schoolboy/porn-dealer Baxter Zevcenko whose dream girl Esme is kidnapped, ostensibly by supernatural forces. Enlisting the help of "Cape Town's finest, drunkest bounty hunter", he embarks on a mission to fight some monsters and get her back. The public release of the proof-of-concept short, Tatchell told The Verge, is to bring in good feedback from...
Do you know that ants with big heads are soldiers and that smaller ants are voyagers? Eight-year-old Aiden the Zoologist does, and he's ready to share even more of his animal knowledge with the world. Aiden wowed Twitter last month when he passionately explained the wonders of tree bark and beetles to his older sister -- and now he's got his own YouTube channel to show us all what it's like to be young and curious and so damn smart. My brother is an animal genius and wanted me to share it w you guys. He titles this: Trees danger and other...
If you're into film and TV but don't have the time to sit down and watch as much as you would like, then you, like me, are probably a trailer fan. There's no shame in sitting down for half an hour and watching everything YouTube recommends for you, and you can be validated in the fact that others agree with you. In fact, some agree so vehemently that they created an awards ceremony purely for trailers, and on Tuesday night the Golden Trailer Awards hosted its 18th annual ceremony. The Awards includes a staggering 115 categories -- including the likes of...
Facebook has signed a deal with entertainment creators Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media and others to create original video content for the platform, and is paying willing to pay up. The deal will bring scripted and unscripted content to the platform, in a bid to compete with premium content creators like YouTube Red and Snap. The scripted shows are intended to last between 20 and 30 minutes (and will include ad breaks), while the unscripted shows will average between five and ten minutes. According to Reuters, Facebook will pay up to US$250 000 for the scripted shows, which will also grant it full ownership...
As smartphones become more complicated, manufacturers are finding novel ways to educate their consumers. Apple's new video campaign does just that, shedding light on some of the basic ways to shoot with an iPhone 7. But there's something particularly noticeable about some of these videos. Especially for South Africans. Available to view on Apple's official site and on YouTube, the video series showcases a few landmarks that Cape Town residents would instantly recognise. One is undeniably Table Mountain, looking across from Lion's Head. Another is of Muizenberg Beach's famous colourful changing huts. While those two are definitely filmed on South African soil, we...
Like Lion's Head at sunset or Camps Bay on a Saturday, Cape Town's largest dam, the Theewaterskloof, is seemingly the new hottest spot in the city for vloggers. We've covered a fair few vlogs and clips from YouTube and Instagram documenting the state of Cape Town's drought. And thanks to hot, dry weather we've been experiencing recent months, each video is seemingly more dire than the next. Self-proclaimed "wannabe vlogger" Adam Spires is the latest to take a walk alongside the dam, reminiscing with his viewers about his years spent jumping into its now mostly evaporated lake. The City of Cape Town...
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